Special Guest Interview with Alana Beth Davies, Author of The Making of Annie-May

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 It’s the 1980s in south Wales, with all its turbulence - unemployment, hardship, and a bitter miners’ strike - and Anya finds herself taking on a teaching job in the unfamiliar world of further education. She tries to balance the role of dutiful wife and mother with her idea of the liberated woman she aspires to be. She finds ways to fight the sexual harassment she encounters, and she helps the people in her local community in any way she can. In speaking up for them, she finds her own voice.

I'm pleased to welcome author Alana Beth Davies  to The Writing Desk:

Tell us about your latest book

My latest book is a novel, The Making of Annie-May. It’s a love story, a family saga, and something of a social and political commentary on life in 20th century Wales, as seen through the eyes of one woman and her family.

It’s the 1980s in south Wales, with all its turbulence - unemployment, hardship, and a bitter miners’ strike - and Anya finds herself taking on a teaching job in the unfamiliar world of further education.  She tries to balance the role of dutiful wife and mother with her idea of the liberated woman she aspires to be. She finds ways to fight the sexual harassment she encounters, and she helps the people in her local community in any way she can. In speaking up for them, she finds her own voice.

Against all the odds, Anya rises from the local politics of her south Wales valley to the green benches of the House of Commons. Here, she finds some surprising links with her hometown, and is taken on an emotional journey back to her father’s youth, to a scandal, and a family secret that has remained hidden for decades.

Meanwhile, Anya embarks on a passionate love affair, one that has unforeseen and sometimes tragic consequences. As her life is thrown into turmoil, she faces some tough questions: Is this the life she wants? Can she do more good outside the Westminster bubble than within? Should she put her family first?

While she fights battles of her own and for others, Anya’s journey takes her from girl to woman, until at last, she has the self-belief to live the life she chooses.

What is your writing routine?

My writing routine is not as rigid as I sometimes think it should be. I write best in the mornings and in the late evenings, and I try to do this most days. I use a laptop – my beloved MacBook Air – and I literally use it on my lap, because if I sit at my desk or table, one of my cats takes it as an invitation to lie on the keyboard.

What advice do you have for new writers?  

• Just write. Write something every day. And read. Read. Read.

• Don’t get bogged down in style and genre – get your story down. You’ll be editing it – again and again – and you can tidy it up later.

• If you’re worried about grammar and syntax – don’t. An editor will help you with that, AFTER you’ve written your book.

• Get your settings and your characters sorted first – plot will come. I didn’t believe that either, but it’s true!

What have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books? 

I’m still working on this! I use Facebook; I have used paid adverts but with limited success. I also use Twitter, via the Writing Community group, again with limited success. More recently I also post on Instagram. I arranged an official launch; this was very useful, and was something I could post on my social media accounts. I intend to do some readings at local groups, but so far I haven’t had time to do this.

Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research  

I discovered that the laws around domestic abuse were very late in supporting victims. The Parliamentary website was very useful for finding out when various laws came in; local government records and newspaper reports of the time gave a local perspective. The Women’s Aid website was a wonderful resource too, providing some astonishing facts: for example, that marital rape wasn’t classed as a crime until 1991.

What was the hardest scene you remember writing?  

The scene involving the miscarriage of a much-wanted baby was a hard one to write. But hopefully the fact that I found it so emotional to write will mean that the reader will be moved by it too.

What are you planning to write next? 

My current work in progress is a family saga with a working title of ‘The Mothers of Tobergel’. It is the story of Daisy and her family, following their journey through the twentieth century, with a focus on the mothers in the family. It is set in Ireland and in Wales, and covers the period 1888 to 1999.  It follows a succession of mothers in their wide and extended family, their roles and their relationships. It is a story of complex family relationships and emotional turmoil.

Alana Beth Davies

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About the Author

Alana Beth Davies has had a number of careers – lecturer, politician, B&B landlady, dollshouse impresario – all while raising her family of five daughters, but it wasn’t until she had retired from all of these that she started to write in earnest. Although she had been writing short stories and poems since a teenager, it was a part-time course in Creative Writing with the Open University that convinced her this was something she could take seriously. In the past few years, Alana has written and published collections of short stories and of poems, and a number of children’s stories. She has helped other aspiring authors by editing their work, and self-published books on their behalf. Find out more at Alana's website https://www.alanadavies.com/ and find her on Twitter @AlanaDavies9